'Unconscionable': Demonstrators protest possible new immigrant detention facility in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — As the crackdown on illegal immigration has intensified under President Donald Trump, T.J. Young has periodically heard scuttlebutt about the possibility of an immigrant detention facility coming to Utah.

In separate reports, CNN and the Washington Post said last year that the state was one of many possible locations around the country where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials planned to build massive new facilities.

Young, for her part, hasn't been able to find anything more concrete — until, possibly, now. A leaked document that has been making the rounds this week among immigrant advocates around the country identifies a large warehouse in an industrial zone west of Salt Lake City International Airport as the possible site of a 7,500-bed immigrant detention facility, she said.

The rumors — so far unverified by immigration officials or city representatives — prompted her and around 100 other advocates for the immigrant community to gather at the site Friday to sound off against the possibility. The Utah State Correctional Facility, a 3,600-bed state prison, sits on a much-larger site about 3.5 miles west of the supposed immigrant detention facility location.

Utah "has a shameful history of internment campus in World War II," Young said, referencing the Topaz camp in Delta that housed Japanese Americans during the war, and she doesn't want a repeat. "It was a stain on our past and our history, and I'm shocked and dismayed that anyone would consider doing this again. It's unconscionable, and we will not allow it to happen again here."

The protesters held signs critical of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency responsible for enforcing immigration law, and clamored against the possibility of a detention facility coming to Utah. The document Young received says the Salt Lake site at 1197 N. 6880 West would be a "mega detention center" to hold immigrants in the process of being deported.

Haylee Monfredi, who lives in the Rose Park area, said local officials should be working to eliminate Immigration and Customs Enforcement, blasting what she sees as the heavy-handed approach agency officials have taken in detaining and deporting immigrants. She was one of the many assembled protesters. "Immigrants are what make America great," she said.

A spokesperson from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, while acknowledging the availability of funds to build new immigrant detention facilities, was mum on the possibility of a new center in Utah. As is, immigration officials sometimes temporarily place immigrants in local Utah jails or send them to detention centers in Nevada, Arizona and elsewhere.

"ICE is targeting the worst of the worst, including murderers, rapists, criminals, gang members and more. Seventy percent of ICE arrests are of illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S.," the spokesman said in a statement. "Thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill, ICE has new funding to expand detention space to keep these criminals off American streets before they are removed for good from our communities. We have no new detention centers to announce at this time."

Andrew Wittenberg, spokesman for Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, said ICE officials haven't reported anything to city officials about potential interest in the site. It's zoned for light manufacturing. But as rumors this week on the possibility emerged, Mayor Erin Mendenhall wrote a letter to Ryan Ritchie of The Ritchie Group, owner of the site in question, noting development issues that would have to be addressed at the location. Notably, the water and sewer system in the area is designed for warehouse use, not the mass of people a detention center would hold.

"The area's utility system has been built specifically for warehouse use, not high occupancy, and there are downstream constraints. We do not have the public utilities infrastructure to serve a large residential population," Mendenhall wrote. "If you intend to lease the building, please note that all of these concerns would need to be addressed before receiving an occupancy permit."

Reps from the Ritchie Group, a Salt Lake City-based real estate development firm, didn't immediately responded to queries Friday from KSL.com seeking comment. The company's website says the structure, dubbed XR International III, contains 325,000-square feet of space and was completed in 2021. It is currently vacant.

Kaitlin Felsted, spokeswoman for the Utah Inland Port Authority, said port authority officials aren't aware of any plans to build an immigrant detention facility in the area. The 1197 N. 6880 West site falls within the boundaries of the Northwest Quadrant, one of several proposed development sites around the Utah Inland Port Authority, a state entity, is promoting.

Whatever the case, those at Friday's demonstration were adamant in their opposition to the possibility of a detention facility. The gathering is one of several that have taken place around the country this week amid similar reports elsewhere of planned immigration detention facilities. The documents Young received said federal immigration and/or state officials were to tour the Salt Lake site on Friday at 9 a.m., which figured in the timing of the demonstration, but no one showed up to visit the location aside from the protesters.

"This is the exact fear I've had for years, that we would be funding, abetting and assisting an ICE facility," Eva Lopéz Chávez, the daughter of Mexican immigrants and a member of the Salt Lake City Council, told the group. "There's no excuse. It's in our backyard."

Lopéz Chávez went on to lead a chant. "What are we going to do?" she shouted. "Stand up, fight back," the crowd answered.

Media reports identify other possible immigrant detention facility locations in Orange County, New York; Kansas City, Missouri; and Merrimack, New Hampshire. As in Utah, news of the possibility of detention facilities prompted protesting by immigrant advocates in Kansas City and Merrimack as well.

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